TUESDAY, Jan. 17 (HealthDay News) — Combining two drugs that
target an aggressive type of breast cancer known as HER2-positive appears
to work better than using either drug alone, researchers report.
The dual-drug approach greatly boosted the chances of eliminating
microscopic signs of early cancer by the time a woman was due to have
surgery, said researcher Dr. Jose Baselga, chief of hematology/oncology at
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and a professor of medicine
at Harvard Medical School.
The study was published online Jan. 17 in The Lancet.
The two drugs are Tykerb (lapatinib) and Herceptin (trastuzumab). Using
both together resulted in a 51 percent response, compared with a 30
percent response in women given Herceptin alone. Those given Tykerb alone
had a 25 percent response.
“What we observed was a massive improvement in response,” Baselga
said.
GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Tykerb, helped fund the study.
“Lapatinib was approved for advanced breast cancer in 2007,” Baselga
said. “The question we had was, what is the efficacy if we give it in
early-stage breast cancer prior to surgery?”
Baselga and his colleagues conducted a trial treating 455 women from 23
countries. All had HER2-positive breast cancers. All had tumors larger
than about three-fourths of an inch.
In HER2-positive breast
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